A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or
more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two
months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons
are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have
to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until
the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each
lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such,
we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final
exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work,
including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
Career planning creates a road map for your life. It determines what you do and when you do it. Effective career planning begins with a self-assessment, continues on to researching potential career moves, and ends with goal setting. Today, we'll show you how to start developing a useful career plan, regardless of whether you're at the beginning of your journey or have been traveling on the road for a while.
Friday - Lesson 02
In our first lesson, we identified goal setting as an important ingredient in developing your career plan. We shared a step-by-step process for creating and implementing meaningful goals. In this lesson, we'll investigate many more elements of effective goal setting. We'll also explore the nature of creative thinking and share methods for increasing your creativity.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
Whenever two or more people interact, communication takes place. Unfortunately, communication often leads to misunderstanding, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Today, you'll learn how to become a better verbal communicator. We'll help you develop a clear message, deliver it through the right communication channels, and improve your listening and understanding of body language and other forms of nonverbal communication.
Friday - Lesson 04
Now that you have a good understanding of verbal communication, it's time to discuss written communication. In this lesson, we'll present principles and concepts to help you plan, organize, and write your ideas so that you become a master communicator. We'll also discuss the various types of written documents such as reports, memos, e-mails, letters, proposals, policies, and procedures.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
Personal organization is a highly desirable goal, but one that many people find hard to achieve. It's not about having good intentions or telling a close friend, "This year I'm going to be organized!" The keys to personal organization are awareness, preparation, execution, and follow-through. Our objective for today's lesson is to help you use these keys to open the doors that will lead you to becoming organized.
Friday - Lesson 06
Life is filled with opportunities, problems, and choices. So, today, we'll examine key elements of problem solving, present a model of decision-making, and discuss how to use numerical methods to arrive at the best solutions.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
In this lesson, we'll discuss time management, which should really be called self management. The ability to use time wisely makes it easier to accomplish tasks, improves performance, and reduces stress. So, your goal should be to use time to increase your productivity and accomplish a greater number of objectives. The concepts we'll discuss today will help you do just that.
Friday - Lesson 08
Stress is an unavoidable part of life and can't be eliminated. You experience stress during a salary negotiation, a visit to the dentist for a root canal, or at an exciting basketball game. When you manage your stress, you increase your chances of enjoying a fulfilling and rewarding life. In this lesson, we'll help you understand what stress really is, identify where it comes from, find out how it affects you, and learn some stress reduction and coping strategies.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
Risk taking and risk avoiding are parts of everyday life. Life requires choices and choices require risks. These days, how well you identify, research, measure, and take risks is a big part of what determines how successful you will be. Today, we'll help you understand what risk is and present concepts and strategies to help you take calculated risks and make the right choices.
Friday - Lesson 10
Most people dislike conflict. But it's often unavoidable. Conflict comes from your beliefs, opinions, values, desires, needs, and habits. Contrary to what many people think, conflict is not necessarily undesirable. In this lesson, you'll learn where conflict comes from and examine different strategies that can help you manage it constructively.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
Some people call accounting the language of business. To be able to use this language, you need to have a good grasp of key financial concepts and fundamentals. So, today, we'll discuss the differences between bookkeeping and accounting, share basic accounting terms, show you various types of accounting methods, and walk you through the two most widely used financial statements.
Friday - Lesson 12
In our final lesson, we'll continue our discussion of accounting and finance. We'll examine various types of costs, determine what cash flow really means, identify key differences between financial and cost accounting, and explore how to make rational investments. After all, you don't mind making a little money, do you?